Actor Tom Cruise's ancestor restored tenants to lands on which they were evicted just before the Great Famine, it has emerged.

Patrick Russell Cruise, his great-great-great grandfather, returned from America when he was told that his land agent had evicted tenants from lands in Co Westmeath in 1843.

He restored the tenants to 500 acres of land in Co Westmeath, compromising townlands in Paristown and Dardistown.

As a vote of thanks, a public dinner was given in his honour in the town of Clonmellon in November 1844. Patrick Russell Cruise died in Dublin in March 1849 without returning to America and he was buried in Donabate in north Dublin.

Tom Cruise was born Tom Cruise Mapathor IV in 1962.

Research commissioned by Tourism Ireland on behalf of The Gathering have established that both the Cruise and Mapathor families originated in Ireland. A third family, the Russells, were also prominent in his background.

The Cruises can trace their presence in Ireland back to the Anglo-Normans and Strongbow.

In 1176 Augustino de Cruce, one of Strongbow's knights, acted as a legal witness to a grant by Strongbow (Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke) of lands in Dublin.

The Cruises and the Russells were English families who refused to conform to the Protestant faith and lost their lands during the Cromwellian invasion.

The families were united by marriage in 1766 and all subsequent relations including Patrick Russell Cruise had the double-barrelled surname.

Cruise was presented with a Certificate of Irish Heritage this morning at Iveagh House by the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore.

Cruise, who is arguably the world's most famous actor, paused for camera shots for the waiting media on the steps of Iveagh House before attending a private reception inside.

His day includes a visit to the Guinness Storehouse, a pre-recorded interview with the Late Late Show, a private reception hosted by the Irish Film Board and then the premiere of the film Oblivion at the Savoy Cinema in O'Connell Street.